Selling on Amazon Handmade

Like many of my fellow handmade artisan friends, I've opened a shop over on Amazon's new Handmade Marketplace. There are a growing number of us discouraged by Etsy's new policy that redefine what they consider to be handmade. They have let a number of low-cost manufacturers join the ranks of Etsy from countries where labor is cheep and 'hand assembled' can bend the rules of what the rest of us would consider artisan made. Etsy says that it is strict about who they allow to use "outside manufacturing help to support their increasing volume needs."  

Sadly, many of us artisans selling on Etsy are feeling this shift directly in traffic to our shops and reduction in our sales. The pages of Etsy are now flooded with page after page of low-cost options from overseas. There was an interesting article on this from the Huffington Post from the buyer's perspective. I, like so many of my fellow artisans on Etsy, are seeing massive drops in traffic to our shops. I have regularly seen conversations about whether people should consider closing their Etsy shops for good. Sigh. 

What it has done is encourage many of us to try other options including joining Amazon's new Handmade Marketplace this holiday season. I am starting out slowly to see how it goes over on Amazon. So I have only a few pieces listed in my shop. This necklace I am showing on the post today is listed and uses beads from Sue Kennedy. These are some of my favorite artisan beads from Sue as I love the soft sand color and overlay of silver. I've used a combination of pyrite and hematite beads to accent the design.

As with quite a few of my posts lately, the bead girl is modeling this piece. We've been having lots of fun together this Fall, and she is helping me by modeling in several of my pictures so I can photograph them and get them listed in my shops. If you have the time to stop by my new Amazon shop, please do click over!